Page 3471 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 19 September 1990
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$500,000, in terms of what it has spent in recent years, is a pretty small amount of money for it. For Weetangera school, it is a great amount of money. Let us not forget that.
The problem this Government faces is that it has now been revealed for what it is; its agenda has increasingly come under light. The Government's agenda is its priority for the elite private schools - not for all private schools but for the elite ones, the ones that are well resourced. That agenda is now abundantly clear. The Government has one set of principles for government schools and another set for private schools. It shows a clear scorn for government schools - "Close them down; sell them off".
I conclude by repeating my main point. Let us be fair about this. The Grammar School can well claim that land, and it will not be a severe imposition on its budget if it competes with other groups in this Territory for it. And that, Chief Minister, is the way that this business ought to proceed.
MR KAINE (Chief Minister) (3.18): Mr Speaker, once again the ALP has shown that it is prepared to pander to the lowest form of politics to gain cheap popularity. The ALP in opposition constantly demonstrates that it would be absolutely incapable of taking any hard decision in the unlikely event that it ever returned to office. Members opposite did not take any when they were in government before. The greatest procrastinator over here could not even decide how to fix a $7m overrun in his hospitals budget.
Mr Wood: It is not a hard decision to give money to that school, for heaven's sake.
MR KAINE: I hope Mr Wood will listen carefully, as I listened to him, Mr Speaker.
Mr Wood: Well, if I can comment, you have a prepared speech - - -
MR SPEAKER: Order! No, you cannot comment, Mr Wood. Please desist.
MR KAINE: You had your go and I listened to you. Now, all I ask is that you listen to me in return.
Mr Wood: Well, respond - - -
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Wood, I warn you.
MR KAINE: In its desperation to wring every last drop of political benefit out of the Government's actions on schools reshaping, the ALP is prepared to undermine a longstanding policy which the ALP itself adhered to when it was in office. Let me make it quite clear that since at least the 1950s the Government has made land available free
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